We Hoped That It Contained Rain, But Presently A
Blast Of Hot Wind, Like The Breath Of A Volcano, Blew Over The Plain,
And The Air Was Filled With Particles Of Sand.
This is the "dry storm"
of Arabia; it appears to depend upon some electrical phenomena which it
would be
Desirable to investigate.[FN#11] When we had loaded and
mounted, my camel-men, two in number, came up to the Shugduf and
demanded "Bakhshish," which, it appears, they are now in the habit of
doing each time the traveller starts. I was at first surprised to find
the word here, but after a few days of Badawi society, my wonder
diminished. The men were Beni-Harb of the great Hijazi tribe, which has
kept its blood pure for the last thirteen centuries,-how much more we
know not,-but they had been corrupted by intercourse with pilgrims,
retaining none of their ancestral qualities but greed of gain,
revengefulness, pugnacity, and a frantic kind of bravery, displayed on
rare occasions. Their nobility, however, did not prevent my quoting the
Prophet's saying, "Of a truth, the worst names among the Arabs are the
Beni-Kalb
[p.248] Kalb and the Beni-Harb,[FN#12]" whilst I taunted them severely
with their resemblance to the Fellahs of Egypt. They would have
resented this with asperity, had it proceeded from their own people,
but the Turkish pilgrim-the character in which they knew me, despite my
Arab dress-is a privileged person.
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